It has been 50 years since the Equal Pay Act (1963) was enacted and women still earn less than men!
When the law was enacted women earned approximately 59 cents on every dollar that a man earned. Today, women earn approximately 77 cent on every dollar a man earns! Oh and by the way, if you are a minority like a Latina or Black female, your pay is quite less! Women of color earn less than white women, Black women earn approximately 70 cents and Hispanic women approximately 60 cents for every dollar earned by a non-Hispanic white man, according to Bureau of Labor Statistics data; and 64 cents for black women and 56 cents for Hispanic women, according to census data.
The pay disparity is partly due to the fact that women continue to fill lower paying jobs because of “occupational segregation”. Occupations are segregated by gender in professions requiring a bachelor’s degree or higher. The top female-dominated professions requiring a higher-education degree—speech-language pathologist, occupational therapist and dietitian—provide average salaries of $66,920, $72,320 and $53,250, respectively. Most women, do not participate in the higher educational professions and therefore are included in the top 10 occupations below:
- Secretaries and administrative assistants.
- Professional nurses.
- Elementary- and middle-school teachers.
- Cashiers.
- Retail salespersons.
- Nursing, psychiatric and home health aides.
- Waitresses.
- First-line supervisors and managers of retail salespersons.
- Customer-service representatives.
- Maids.
Male-dominated professions requiring a high school diploma or a bachelor’s degree or higher continue to pay more than fields with a high concentration of women. For example, the three most common male-dominated jobs requiring a high school diploma—brick mason, tool and die maker, and plumber—provide average salaries of $45,410, $39,910 and $46,660, respectively. By contrast, the top three female-dominated jobs requiring a high school diploma—secretary, child care worker and hairdresser—offer average salaries of $34,660, $19,300 and $22,500, respectively. The three most common male-dominated jobs requiring a higher-education degree—mechanical engineer, computer-control programmer and operator, and aerospace engineer—provide average salaries of $78,160, $71,380 and $97,480, respectively.
President Obama has proposed potential legislation which is called the Paycheck Fairness Act to close the pay gap. President Obama has stated, “Over the course of her career, a working woman with a college degree will earn, on average, hundreds of thousands of dollars less than a man who does the same work. Now that’s wrong. I don’t want that for Malia and Sasha. I don’t want that for your daughters. I don’t want that to be an example that any child growing up ends up accepting as somehow the norm. I want every child to grow up knowing that a woman’s hard work is valued and rewarded just as much as any man’s.” Employers should watch for more to come on this potential change in America’s pay for women! DAS HR Consulting will apprise you of any changes to any legislation that occurs!
References:
- Women’s Pay Still Lags Behind Men’s 6/13/2013 Allen Smith, SHRM.org
- BLS.gov
